The invention pertains to apparatus for rotating and compressing a stack of soft pads, such as sanitary pads, so the stack can be easily fitted into a package such as a carton or a bag.
After sanitary pads are discharged from the pad forming machine, they eventually arrive at a stacker. In some cases, the pads are folded on a line transverse to their length so that the pads become one-third as long and three times as thick. In some cases, after having been folded, the pads are inserted in individual packages such as sealed bags before they are entered into the stacker. When a predetermined number of pads are accumulated at the discharge station of the stacker, a synchronously driven pusher pushes the stack into a next machine stage.
When the pads leave the stacker, they are stacked with their broader faces in interfacing relationship with each other. Usually, a vertical line would be perpendicular to the faces of the pads in the stack at this time. For entering them in a cartoner or a bag making machine it is desirable, however, to have the stack rotated so the individual pads are standing on their edges for being pushed edgewise into a bag or a carton.